On the site of the Battle of New Market sits the Virginia Museum of the Civil War. It’s administered by the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) which had a real connection to the battle. There is information about the battle plus a chronological history of the war.
The battle is remembered for the participation of cadets from VMI, some as young as 15. I missed the film Field of Lost Shoes, so named because the young cadets marched through a muddy field that captured their shoes.
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- This monument was a reminder that there were 1,372 casualties here.
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- Inscription: The Virginia Military Institute will be heard from today.
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- Officers were required to wear their swords on the battlefield. Theirs were fancier than the enlisted men’s.
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- Many designs for pistols flourished during the war. Muzzle loader had given way to revolving 6-shot pistols.
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- The beginning of the war there were an array of uniforms. At the end, it was just blue and gray.
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- A doctor’s case. During the war 206,000 soldiers died from their wounds; 417,000 died from disease.
Notes:
VMI is a military college, the oldest in the USA. website
Spoiler alert: the Confederates won the battle; the war, not so much.
The first photo was taken with the camera in my new iPhone 17 Pro Max with 8x optical telephoto. I brought my “real” camera, a Canon Rebel, but never used it.